WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - As the Susquehanna River began a rapid retreat toward its banks Saturday after days of record flooding here and in parts of New York, tens of thousands of evacuated residents began a gut-wrenching return home, some finding little more than mud-caked chaos where their lives used to be.

The river, swollen by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, dropped by as much as half a foot an hour in some places. But officials warned that while the water was receding, levels remained well above normal and could still present a serious hazard.

"People are expecting to get home and resume their normal lives, but it's going to be days before that's possible," Mayor Thomas M. Leighton said.

The levees held in Wilkes-Barre, sparing most of the city from the kind of devastation that was feared. But a four-block area of downtown experienced major water damage because of floodgate leakage, and the Brookside neighborhood on the northern part of town was under 6 feet of water in some areas from an overflowing creek.

Forecasters said the storm would reach the coast today, mostly likely with near hurricane intensity.

Helicopters from the Mexican navy and the state oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, scoured the sea, while other crews searched the beaches closest to the spot where the 10 abandoned their disabled liftboat for an enclosed life raft in the storm on Thursday.

By Saturday afternoon, authorities said they had found no sign of the workers from Houston-based Geokinetics Inc. and who called for help Thursday afternoon after leaving a vessel known as Trinity II.

The missing include four U.S. workers, four Mexican workers, one worker from Kazakhstan and a 10th of unconfirmed nationality.

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Other nearby communities did not fare so well. In West Pittston, homeowners returned to find water had almost reached their second floors. In Exeter Borough, high water prevented some families from taking stock of exactly what they had lost. The homes were still holding water.

Officials were asking residents to be cautious, and there was good reason: Flooding in Pennsylvania last week killed at least 12 people, including an 8-year-old boy who was sucked into a storm drain, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency said. The Associated Press reported that flooding as a result of Tropical Storm Lee had also killed three people in Virginia and one in Maryland.